Recently, rumors circulated that the U.S. semiconductor blockade against China has escalated once again. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has reportedly notified the world’s three largest EDA (Electronic Design Automation) chip design vendors to cease EDA services and support to the entire Chinese mainland. Cadence, Synopsys, and Siemens are all subject to the ban, and together they account for a staggering 74% of the global market share.
Siemens indirectly confirmed this previously, with at least the China region no longer able to access Siemens’ EDA technology websites and other resources.
Cadence has admitted receiving a notification from BIS on May 23rd, stating that for transactions involving parties in China, the export, re-export, or in-country transfer of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software and technology with Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) 3D991 and 3E991 on the Commerce Control List requires prior authorization. Cadence stated that the new regulations are complex and that they are communicating with BIS for further clarification, while also assessing the impact on their business and financial performance.
Synopsys had also previously confirmed receiving notice from BIS regarding new export restrictions related to China, and is evaluating the potential impact on its business, operational performance, and financial condition, suspending the release of annual and quarterly forecasts.
Now, Synopsys CEO Sassine Ghazi has issued an internal letter to employees, providing further explanation on the situation.
The letter states: On May 29, 2025, Synopsys received a letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce BIS, notifying Synopsys of new export restrictions related to China, broadly prohibiting the sale of Synopsys products and services in China, effective May 29, 2025.
To ensure compliance, Synopsys has taken the following measures until further clarification is received:
Firstly, sales and distribution in China are not allowed, and new orders have been blocked.
Secondly, Chinese customers’ access to SolvNetPlus and related services will be disabled.
These measures will affect all customers in China, including employees of global customers working in Chinese factories, and Chinese military users regardless of their location.
Coupled with the blockade on manufacturing processes, the future situation for Chinese chip companies will undoubtedly become more challenging, with their hands fully tied from design to manufacturing.
For example, although Xiaomi’s newly released Xuanjie O1 SoC processor complies with U.S. control policies in terms of manufacturing and can still be manufactured by TSMC, its design based on 3nm and more advanced processes will inevitably be cast under a thick shadow. How to further develop in the future will be a major problem.
Of course, this will also inevitably stimulate the rapid development of domestic EDA, such as Huada Empyrean, Primarius Technologies, and GigaDevice Semiconductor, which will all enter the fast lane.
What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger!
Regarding AI chips, even the crippled, specially supplied version like the H20 is not allowed to be sold to China, and NVIDIA is almost out of options. Chinese tech giants have also recognized the situation and begun to vigorously support domestic AI GPUs.
It is reported that Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu have already begun testing alternatives to NVIDIA AI chips, such as “a certain 920.”
Tencent previously revealed that it has stockpiled a large inventory of H20 chips and is not concerned that U.S. export control policies will affect Tencent’s product development and launch plans, while also changing its AI strategy to no longer blindly pursue high computing power.
NVIDIA is also reportedly researching new compliant GPUs, rumored to be called B20, which will not only further reduce frequencies but also replace HBM high-bandwidth memory with GDDR7 VRAM. It is expected to launch in the second half of this year, with an estimated price of $6500-8000, only about half of the H20.
AMD is also designing its next-generation GPUs that can be sold compliantly in the Chinese market, such as the recently released Radeon AI PRO R9700, which also uses GDDR7 VRAM.
However, stockpiling, no matter how much, can only meet immediate needs, and NVIDIA/AMD’s new GPUs may be banned again at any time until their performance is so low that they are simply unusable.
Therefore, the real way out is to develop their own AI chips, even if there are many differences in performance and ecosystem, it must be done.
Western observers point out that just a few years ago, the gap between Chinese and Western chips was as much as a decade, or at least two generations, but now, China has narrowed this gap to just one generation. Therefore, catching up and even surpassing is only a matter of time, and it will certainly not take too long.
In fact, the Western tech industry has a clear understanding of this. Jensen Huang has repeatedly stated publicly that the AI export control policy against China has failed and will only push China’s semiconductor industry toward independent development.
